Council to probe vanished rivers

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council will question the administration about several rivers in the capital which have disappeared due to the construction of housing and office complexes, a council member said on Friday.

"We will question executives of the city administration in a hearing about the vanished rivers," the head of the council's Commission C for Financial Affairs, Amarullah Asbah, said.

Amarullah regretted that several rivers in the city had disappeared, including ones near the Hilton Hotel in Senayan and around the Sudirman Center Business District (SCBD), both in South Jakarta.

He said rivers in the SCBD disappeared as a result of the construction of huge office complexes. "But I'm not sure whether the developer of the business district dug tunnels to divert the rivers."

The councilor said the disappearance of the rivers would cause environmental problems, including an increase in the number of flood-prone areas.

Amarullah also said two rivers in Ujung Menteng and Cawang, both in East Jakarta, had disappeared.

"The rivers belong to the city administration. It's still unclear why private developers were allowed to reclaim the rivers and build housing complexes there," he said.

He said a 9,900 square-meter plot of land in Ujung Menteng was reclaimed by PT Metropolitan Development, and a 7,700 square- meter plot in Cawang was reclaimed by PT Merdi Jaya.

He said the reclamation of the rivers by the firms was unclear, adding that data from the city administration only remarked that the land had been handed over to the private developers.

"We regret the handing over of this land since it wasn't reported to the council before it occurred," he said.

He said the data also made no mention of the price of the land.

"We'll summon executives of the city administration as well as of the private companies," he said. (jun)